Github Repository for KO Development

[MrChopperMC]

WE NEED 1 SERVER FARM/PK... LVL CAP 60 62 LATER 65 70 72 MAX.

EXP RATE x5 x7 x10 / reduce exp tnl

where is kotasitc ?

T_T all server die sux .... phenomko wickedko xlargempire ....

[twostars]

WE NEED 1 SERVER FARM/PK... LVL CAP 60 62 LATER 65 70 72 MAX.

EXP RATE x5 x7 x10 / reduce exp tnl

where is kotasitc ?

T_T all server die sux .... phenomko wickedko xlargempire ....

Dude, enough with the spam. This is extremely off-topic here.

[Kallop]

Hmm I'm guessing the best way to make progress with this project would take advantage of the skills that many devs here actually got. You know there has been a couple server with some amazing gfx work done but they haven't exactly been that good in other ways.

[twostars]

Hmm I'm guessing the best way to make progress with this project would take advantage of the skills that many devs here actually got. You know there has been a couple server with some amazing gfx work done but they haven't exactly been that good in other ways.

Graphics work doesn't help update the server source/emulate new content. That's what this project is. Exclusively.

[ilterates]

I love the idea, I wish I had the tools to contribute.

[Blaze]

Hey guys,

This year I started studying Game Development. I'm starting to get a lil more familiar with Java and in a year or so I might start learning C++. For now I don't think I could really mean anything for this project, but I would love to contribute my part later on when I can.

Regards,


Blaze

[Warmonger]

Hey guys,

This year I started studying Game Development. I'm starting to get a lil more familiar with Java and in a year or so I might start learning C++. For now I don't think I could really mean anything for this project, but I would love to contribute my part later on when I can.

Regards,


Blaze

Better off doing what I've done, and work on your own emulator from scratch. This way you don't have to stick to the terrible code base that once was 1098. Plus everyone is just hawks to this project, awaiting its near completion before they hop on it. Otherwise you'd be contributing to something, that people will end up stealing and claiming as their own later on down the road. Being open source, there is no way to stop the leeches. With closed source, I may be the only one collaborating on my project. But I will never have to worry about bad code being committed, source being stolen, or people being ungrateful. Also overall in general its a much better learning experience, for further understanding KO protocol and how everything works. Where you stop, is where you start next time around.

[twostars]

With closed source, I may be the only one collaborating on my project. But I will never have to worry about bad code being committed

No, you just won't have anyone to point our your mistakes until they appear in-game at a later date. Nobody's perfect, things get missed/overlooked frequently. The more people who look at it, the more likely it'll be caught (and consequently, the faster it'll be fixed).

I know this all too well from my experience with my own private project. If not for jonny (and a select few individuals), quite a few things wouldn't nearly be as reliable/accurate as they are now.
But flying completely solo without anyone ever looking at your code? I couldn't do that, I'd be worried something, somewhere's amiss (granted, unit testing helps ease major concerns a lot, but not everything can be explicitly tested).

[Warmonger]

No, you just won't have anyone to point our your mistakes until they appear in-game at a later date. Nobody's perfect, things get missed/overlooked frequently. The more people who look at it, the more likely it'll be caught (and consequently, the faster it'll be fixed).

I know this all too well from my experience with my own private project. If not for jonny (and a select few individuals), quite a few things wouldn't nearly be as reliable/accurate as they are now.
But flying completely solo without anyone ever looking at your code? I couldn't do that, I'd be worried something, somewhere's amiss (granted, unit testing helps ease major concerns a lot, but not everything can be explicitly tested).

I will agree that more eyes on the subject is likely to cover more ground. Tho I have confidence in my abilities to not overlook something. As long as you test every bit of code you write, and make sure it can't be abused in any way. Then you're likely to be fine writing on your own. Tho you will always end up with a few things broken/abusable at the end of the project. A good stress test by a bunch of players will help iron out them bugs. I plan on adding a debug mode to my files, that logs every single thing that happens ingame. So if a quest, skill, or anything else (dupe) is abused. I will be able to pin point exactly where the problem lies. I don't mind it taking longer by myself, I am more interested in learning every bit of the protocol. And how everything should/should not work. Plus its always fun to implement your own way of doing things.

[Jonny]

I will agree that more eyes on the subject is likely to cover more ground. Tho I have confidence in my abilities to not overlook something. As long as you test every bit of code you write, and make sure it can't be abused in any way. Then you're likely to be fine writing on your own. Tho you will always end up with a few things broken/abusable at the end of the project. A good stress test by a bunch of players will help iron out them bugs. I plan on adding a debug mode to my files, that logs every single thing that happens ingame. So if a quest, skill, or anything else (dupe) is abused. I will be able to pin point exactly where the problem lies. I don't mind it taking longer by myself, I am more interested in learning every bit of the protocol. And how everything should/should not work. Plus its always fun to implement your own way of doing things.

Testing is great, but, you will find unittests to be much more useful than just testing changes you make individually as you keep a historical record of how things are supposed to work, and it's easier to identify breaking changes.

That said, when working on a large project like an emulator, you really have to take care to unittest each individual piece as testing them together in motion isn't very simple.

[Warmonger]

Testing is great, but, you will find unittests to be much more useful than just testing changes you make individually as you keep a historical record of how things are supposed to work, and it's easier to identify breaking changes.

That said, when working on a large project like an emulator, you really have to take care to unittest each individual piece as testing them together in motion isn't very simple.

I do write my own tools to test my code from time to time, to make sure its doing exactly what it should do. Tho that's only when I am unsure how the code is going to react, or if the function is going to impact server performance. I don't buy into that whole "extreme programming" idea personally, as its only an emulator. I see no sense in writing code, then testing the code, then writing code, then testing the code. I am more fit to just write the entire project, test what I need to test along the way. And then run the project through the debugger, so when people are online testing it, if it ever crashes the debugger will show me exactly where and why. In a sense to me the debugger are the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th set of eyes to go over my code to make sure its right. After that, I can always go back and rewrite functions to improve upon them.

What if you code an error into the test? Do you then write a test for the test?
And then a test for the test for the test....

[Jonny]

I do write my own tools to test my code from time to time, to make sure its doing exactly what it should do. Tho that's only when I am unsure how the code is going to react, or if the function is going to impact server performance. I don't buy into that whole "extreme programming" idea personally, as its only an emulator. I see no sense in writing code, then testing the code, then writing code, then testing the code. I am more fit to just write the entire project, test what I need to test along the way. And then run the project through the debugger, so when people are online testing it, if it ever crashes the debugger will show me exactly where and why. In a sense to me the debugger are the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th set of eyes to go over my code to make sure its right. After that, I can always go back and rewrite functions to improve upon them.

Test driven development is definitely worth the effort. Here's a small discussion on the topic from stack overflow

Is Unit Testing worth the effort? - Stack Overflow

P.s. If your test is wrong, the unittest shouldn't pass.

[Warmonger]

Test driven development is definitely worth the effort. Here's a small discussion on the topic from stack overflow

Is Unit Testing worth the effort? - Stack Overflow

P.s. If your test is wrong, the unittest shouldn't pass.

From Wikipedia:

It is also important to note that Test-driven Development only proves correctness of design and functionality according to the testcases written. An incorrect testcase that does not meet the specifications will produce incorrect code. Therefore, the emphasis on correctness and design has shifted to writing testcases since they are the drivers. As a result, Test-driven Development is only as good as the tests are.

I'm a code then test sorta guy, but then again, I don't write mission critical stuff so there you go.

[twostars]

Just bumping this thread to let you guys know this project's still being worked on. In terms of contributions, it didn't quite meet my expectations (not sure what happened to the volunteers who expressed an interest in contributing beforehand), but still -- we plod on.

Presently we've "downgraded" to 1.886, as it's easier to develop for (we aren't forced to update what feels like every few days, since nTTGame took over it's been crazy with updates), but it won't be like that forever -- when there's less to focus on, we'll have time to update fairly consistently. For now, it's just wasted time & effort involved with updating each patch which could better be spent building up the server, so a constant 1.886 it is.

The project's highly experimental, it's been through several major changes (which are still being ironed out) and is quite likely to have severe bugs, so it definitely isn't ready to host a private server with (not that you would, it's still missing a lot of crucial functionality, like for example, the upgrade system). Performance, however, has been improving & the codebase is slowly coming together (quite literally, original code was riddled with duplicate/redundant code spread out across the servers, this is all in the process of being merged).

In terms of functionality, it's still extremely limited. I, personally, have been mostly focused on cleaning up the code & improving (or replacing) the various systems, so as to make them easier to maintain/extend onto, but it's slowly getting to the point where in-game functionality can be worked on. It would greatly help if you guys were to grab a copy of the repository to test yourselves, and submit issue reports to let us know what needs fixing/implementing (it may not be readily apparent to us, or if we're aware -- it may be simply forgotten. Issue reports are crucial to ensuring things get done!). Additionally, obviously, anybody interested in contributing to the project is of course welcome to -- we appreciate all the help we can get there. Remember, we're working on this project in our own free time, making it available so everyone can learn from and use.

We know there's other private projects out there that have the potential to shift the PSKO community to the only available updated servers, which is fair enough if the server's deserving -- but not so much if it sucks horribly (you know which servers I'm talking about, I'm sure!). Hopefully, when this open-source, community-driven project is more complete, it should counter-balance that and bring attention back to servers that actually deserve the attention.

Anyway, feel free to check it out. If you haven't used C++ before but are willing to learn, you're completely welcome to help -- even simply helping to test is completely welcome (although you will need to grab & compile the source, but there's a guide you can find from the first post).

[Decerto]

So what happens after u finish the client,doesn't matter when,you finish it 100%,bug free,everything is working like it should,is it going to be open source so everyone can use it or you are planning on making a server ? (just ur name in any server would bring at least a thousand people ).